Rio Piedras

Rio Piedras Massacre
Albizu Campos was the leader of the Puerto Rican nationalist party. The goal of the party was to achieve independence for Puerto Rico. Albizu Campos insulted the students at the University of Puerto Rico over a radio broadcast in early October. The students arranged a meeting at the university. Police made a claim that they found a conspiracy. They believed the members of the nationalist party was going to use fire arms to break up the party. On October 24, 1935 the Rio Piedras massacre happened. It was a shootout between the local police officers ,and member of the nationalist party. Four members of the party and one police officer was killed. A testimony at the time was said that the police officers fired on the party ,and screamed not to let them leave alive.

In 1936 two members of the nationalist party Hiram Rosado and Elias Beauchamp. Assassinated Colonel Elisha Francis Riggs , who was the superior police officer in the island. Colonel Riggs was viewed as being responsible for the massacre. Hiram Rosado and Elias Beauchamp were executed at the police head quarters without a trial. Albizu Campos was arrested for being a leader fighting for freedom. Under the charges of “seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government in Puerto Rico.”

Reference: http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/timeline_all.html